Increase ridership with more penalties on freedom loving independent car drivers.
Portland City clowns could sell daily,weekly, or monthly permits to drive your car. Say $6.50 a mile?
Then the clowns could hire more assistants / office staff and they of course would all work from home and not add to the carbon footprint and save tax payers the new permit fee.
The new staff would think of new fun, hip permits and fees to end global cooling, I mean warming, I mean climate change.

I know, right?

The real problem here is how much we spend on healthcare and how that is now a primary focus in the state and nationally. And then we go and spend millions on a toy train that travels very slowly at distances people ought to be walking.

I give a pass to the elderly and handicapped of course. They certainly need good options, and buses seem to fit the bill.

Based on the Rose article, I'm not sure how someone can argue for streetcars and critique health care policy at the same time with a straight face.

It all comes back to the fact that streetcars were never meant to be a transit system (except maybe 100 years ago), they're a bright and shiny object meant to assist in real estate development.

Smile and fork it over. Your elected officials say so.

You can just imagine how much faster it would have been on foot if Joe's route were a loop instead of point-to-point. Or if he were going a few blocks south from OMSI instead of north and west.

"The real problem here is how much we spend on healthcare ....."

I'd say the real problem is that we call "health care" is in fact medical care. But I agree that "health care" would include walking. And Portland is a great walking town.

But I would not compare wasting money on these silly streetcars to the vast amounts spent on the medical industry; I would stick with juxtaposing that waste against bus transit and road maintenance where it would be so much more effectively spent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

If sustainability really meant being "eco" but in Portland, in my opinion it means more like sustainability for the ruling elite and others to profit and/or sustain their lifestyle at the rest of the population's expense, whether by extracting money and/or "quality of life" livability.

Rose cheated, he picked a loop route segment for the sc and took a short cut himself. Walk the tracks next time dude.

TDA...

The point was to get from point A to point B... Between two pretty logical points.

It was indeed a valid test. and the Toonerville Trolley lost.

Sally, Portland is a great walking town...if you live close in. Out past 82nd it gets a little hairy. Fewer crosswalks, fewer paved sidewalks even on major streets, fewer destinations within a reasonable walking distance, and thanks to fewer stoplights the cars hurtle along at higher speeds.

But TriMet, in it's infinite (or is that infinitessimal?) wisdom, is cutting bus services in areas where walking isn't as practical and spending its money on shiny toys in areas that ARE better for walking.

It was indeed a valid test.

Not entirely. I mean, he could have raced the streetcar from 11th & Lovejoy to 10th & Lovejoy just as validly, if the test is nothing more than Point (or Pint) A to Point B.

There is no question that the streetcar is slow. But you can't really keep up with it on foot.

Allan, a block, really? That is your test?
(A) I doubt you'd win; and (B) let's have a real test: a limo ride. Probably cheaper and you'd get champagne.

Half seriously, I would like to see taxis or limousines compared to streetcars and urban trains simply for cost. On that comparison I'm not sure buses would win, hardly to mention streetcars and the MAX line.

Michelle: I did not qualify my statement but of course I agree.

A person could walk the tracks I suppose.
But isn't there usually a broken trolley stuck on them blocking your way ?

Allan...
Dont forget that JR stood around for 12 minutes so that everything started at the same time, instead of just leaving when he wanted to leave...

It was a great test. No, he didn't walk the tracks, because the tracks didn't take the best route to his destination. That's the thing with tracks. Stupid Portlandia; living out the bizarre Earl the Pearl fantasy. Bankruptcy soon, kids.

A friend and I discovered this anomaly years ago when the streetcar first started running.

Haven't ridden it since, and we're improving our health in the meantime, too, by walking rain or shine.

They're quaint and fine for the tourists.

I compare to the streetcar network in San Francisco, and have an entirely different opinion - fast and convenient. Much faster than walking.

31 minutes to travel 1.75 miles is ridiculous UNLESS you are walking. And then, at least you will also benefit from the excercise.

Great test - of course it's fair. The object of transit travel is not to go around a course- it's to get to the destination. An even more fair test would have been to a destination OFF of a trolley route. Once you've poked along onboard for 30 minutes you ultimately have to get off and transfer to a bus or walk to where you want to be anyway.

Compare it to bike or a car (trolley's real competition) and it's no contest.